February 08; The PILDAT Roundtable on Effective
National Security Consultations - A look through Global Models concluded
with the consensus demand that the NSC must meet weekly, or atleast on a monthly
basis and must be made more effective.

The Roundtable was joined by a number of eminent personalities
including Dr. Muhammad Shoaib Suddle, Former IG;
Mr. Diyar Khan, Joint Secretary National Security Division;
Mr. Ayaz Wazir, Former Ambassador, Mr. Iftikhar ullah
Babar, Former Secretary Senate, Mr. Tahir Khalil,
Bureau Chief-Islamabad-Daily Jang, Mr. Muhammad Ziauddin,
Senior Analyst/Columnist; Ms. Emma Leahey, First
Secretary (Political), Australian High Commission, Ms. Sabiha Nazir,
MNA-PML-N, Ms. Aisha Sayed, MNA-JI, as well
as other members of civil society and a large number of media personnel from
the print and electronic media.

Mr. Saleem Safi, Senior Journalist, said
that pre-eminence of military in Pakistan's national security policies has meant
that civilian supremacy, as defined under the Constitution, has only become
a dream. While Pakistan Military leads through its unparalleled discipline,
the civilian elected leadership, through its inability to provide good governance,
have ceded space to Military on national security and regional and foreign policies.
Political leaders and parties have not prepared themselves on dealing with central
issues of foreign policy, internal security and national defence. Issues and
problems of FATA and Balochistan are not discussed. This Government and previous
Governments have shied away from holding institutional dialogue and instead
relied on individual meetings between elected Prime Minister and Services Chiefs.
National Security consultations and dialogues must now include key political
leaders and other stakeholders. However commendable the model of NSC, it is
failing to provide the forum that requires to address key concerns.

Mr. Muhammad Sadiq addressing questions at
PILDAT Roundtable on Effective National Security Consultations on February 08,
2018, at the Marriot Hotel, Islamabad

Mr. Muhammad Sadiq, Former Secretary National
Security Division, said that evolution of Cabinet Committee of National Security
or NSC was created through a political consensus. Earlier, the Services Chiefs
were invited to join meetings and will not be full members. However, the new
COAS at the time, Gen. Raheel Sharif, asked for Services Chiefs to be full members.
That led to the change of nomenclature of the Committee from a Cabinet Committee
to the National Security Committee. That it should be a decision-making body
was agreed within the Committee that allowed Premier to bypass the Cabinet and
the Parliament. The change to decision-making body from the originally-planned
advisory body, affected the Committee's effectiveness as both the COAS and Premier
began to meet individually and avoided regular meetings of the Committee. Once
the spat between the Premier and the Interior Minister resulted in the meeting
not being held for 5 months. Mr. Khan shared that one of the members proposed
that monthly meeting of the NSC is too soon and proposed that the meeting should
be held every three months to which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the time
quipped that since Pakistan does not have many national security issues, monthly
meetings are indeed too much. After a while the Committee could not even hold
meetings every three months. While the NSC worked a great deal during the first
year on policy issues on Afghanistan, the momentum was lost afterwards. Similarly
the initiative on FATA reforms by the NSC did not at that time received the
support by the Military and therefore, despite proposals, the reforms could
not be constituted. Looking forward, Mr. Muhammad Sadiq said that it is imperative
that the NSC must meet more frequently and preferably on a weekly basis. The
office of the National Security Advisor must be occupied by an individual who
has priority access to both the Premier and the COAS.

Sharing his views at the occasion, Dr. Parvez Hassan,
Senior Advocate Supreme Court, said that the NSC must have a law defining its
membership. The law must make it compulsory that decisions should only be made
by holding physical meeting and bar against decision making through circulation
of policy decisions. He also proposed that the NSC membership should be enlarged
to include other stakeholders such as Presiding Officers of the Parliament.
The tiers of NSC must be activated and involve think tanks and experts who provide
policy input to the NSC. Dr. Hassan also advised that the NSC must publish an
Annual Report that details the meetings held and issues discussed without divulging
details of discussions.

Mr. Shahid Hamid , former Federal Minister
for Defence, recommended that meetings of NSC must be held weekly ahead of the
meetings of the Federal Cabinet and consultations or decisions of the NSC must
be endorsed by the Federal Cabinet. This is especially necessary in the light
of recent ruling of the Supreme Court that it's the Federal Cabinet and not
just the elected Prime Minister, who is constitutionally responsible for executive
decision-making in the country. Mr. Hamid was of the opinion that the NSC does
not need to be supported by a new legislation and like the Council for Defence
and National Security (CDNS) established by the Caretaker Government in 1997,
it is correctly established under the Ruled of Business. He also believed that
there is no need of any change to the composition of the NSC. He also laid stress
on the need to formulate a National Security Policy on priority.

Participants at the PILDAT Roundtable on Effective
National Security Consultations - A look through Global Models on February 08,
2018, at the Marriot Hotel, Islamabad

Other Members of the PILDAT Dialogue Group on Civil-Military
Relations, including Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Moinuddin Haider, former
Federal Minister of Interior, and Mr. Mujib-ur-Rehman Shami,
Senior Analyst, supported weekly meetings of NSC but discouraged that other
political parties or office bearers be included in the NSC. Mr. Shami said that
statutory role of NSC will weaken the authority of the Federal Government which
must be avoided. The NSC must be an advisory body and decisions should be taken
by the Federal Cabinet. Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Humayon Bangash said
that the role of the Secretariat of the NSC is of paramount importance in its
effective functioning. Mr. Arif Nizami, Senior Analyst, said
that the dormancy of NSC under the premiership of Mr. Nawaz Sharif was due to
his personal distaste for institutional structures curtailing his own powers.
The NSC will have to be evolved overtime to be effective. Mr. Shahid
Malik, former Ambassador, said that the NSC must meet regularly.

Earlier, Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, President
PILDAT, while introducing the subject of the Roundtable, said that Consultations
on national defence and security with key organs of a State, ahead of the Executive
making policies, are a globally accepted practice. The need for consultations
becomes evermore critical in Pakistan as a country that has been ruled by Military
for a number of years since independence and as a consequence, continues to
witness estranged and strained civil-military relations. Over the years, Pakistan
has experimented with setting up organs for such a consultation evolved through
Defence Committees of the Cabinet, National Security Council and since 2013,
a structured National Security Committee (NSC) with a Secretariat. The Roundtable
discussed comparative global examples on effective functioning of NSCs and posed
questions on effectiveness of Pakistan's NSC in discussing long-term strategic
issues and its evolution.